1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to charge-coupled devices (CCD) and more particularly to a robotic CCD microscope for enhanced crystal recognition.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,457 for a system and method for forming synthetic protein crystals to determine the conformational structure by crystallography to George D. Craig, issued Jan. 28, 1997 provides the following background information, “The conformational structure of proteins is a key to understanding their biological functions and to ultimately designing new drug therapies. The conformational structures of proteins are conventionally determined by x-ray diffraction from their crystals. Unfortunately, growing protein crystals of sufficient high quality is very difficult in most cases, and such difficulty is the main limiting factor in the scientific determination and identification of the structures of protein samples. Prior art methods for growing protein crystals from super-saturated solutions are tedious and time-consuming, and less than two percent of the over 100,000 different proteins have been grown as crystals suitable for x-ray diffraction studies.”
International Patent No. WO0109595 A2 for a method and system for creating a crystallization results database to Lansing Stewart et al., published Feb. 8, 2001, provides the following background information, “Macromolecular x-ray crystallography is an essential aspect of modern drug discovery and molecular biology. Using x-ray crystallographic techniques, the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids, and their various complexes, can be determined at practically atomic level resolution. The enormous value of three-dimensional information has led to a growing demand for innovative products in the area of protein crystallization, which is currently the major rate limiting step in x-ray structure determination. One of the first and most important steps of the x-ray crystal structure determination of a target macromolecule is to grow large, well diffracting crystals with the macromolecule. As techniques for collecting and analyzing x-ray diffraction data have become more rapid and automated, crystal growth has become a rate limiting step in the structure determination process.”
United States Patent Application No. 2003/0150375 for automated macromolecular crystallization screening to Brent W. Segelke, Bernhard Rupp, and Heike, I. Krupka, published Aug. 14, 2003, provides the following state of technology information, a system of automated macromolecular crystallization screening of a sample. Initially, reagent components are selected from a set of reagents and a set of a multiplicity of reagent mixes are produced. A multiplicity of analysis plates are produced utilizing the reagent mixes wherein each analysis plate contains a set format of reagent mixes combined with the sample. The analysis plates are incubated to promote growth of crystals in the analysis plates. Images of the crystals are made. The images are analyzed with regard to suitability of the crystals for analysis by x-ray crystallography. A design of reagent mixes is produced based upon the expected suitability of the crystals for analysis by x-ray crystallography. If the crystals are not ideal, a second multiplicity of mixes of the reagent components is produced utilizing the design. The second multiplicity of reagent mixes are used for automated macromolecular crystallization screening the sample. The second round of automated macromolecular crystallization screening may produce crystals that are suitable for x-ray crystallography. If the second round of crystallization screening does not produce crystals suitable for x-ray crystallography a third reagent mix design is created and a third round of crystallization screening is implemented. If necessary additional reagent mix designs are created and analyzed.